by Sarah Zettel
She began to laugh. The low, hoarse noise spilled out of her until her shoulders shook and tears trickled out of the corners of her eyes.
“Aria Born of the Black Wall, you are an idiot Notouch! Even the stones will not change that. Give yourself this. Whatever you think of the Teacher he was, Eric Born is not stupid!” She wiped the back of her hand across her eyes.
But, what is he?
Aria stood up and staggered, catching herself against the wall.
Go to sleep, Aria.
She dragged her poncho off and laid it on the bed. Not trusting her balance anymore, she sat on the bed to undo the laces around her leggings. The leggings themselves peeled off in long strips of cloth that she folded on top of her sandals.
She unbelted her overtunic and dragged it over her shoulders. The scent of herself came off with it.
I hope he has a bath in this place. I reek. She stripped off the knife sheaths and tossed them on the pile of clothing.
One hand strayed to her waist and pressed against the thick, leather belt beneath her undertunic. It chafed. It had been put on her when she first came to her cycles. As much as the hand marks, it said she was old enough to leave the clan as a woman in need of protection and reminding. For a searing instant her skin felt Nail in the Beam’s heavy touch and missed it.
Well, get used to that, she told herself roughly. He’ll surely have divorced you by the time you get back home.
Aria considered taking the time to remove the belt, but a formless notion told her to leave it be. Part of her had been far too relieved to see Eric Born and that part might need reminding, or protection.
She rolled her clothes into her poncho and dropped the bundle beside the bed. She stretched out beneath the blanket and reached up until her hand found the lamp-light square. The room went black. Her mind quickly followed its example.
Behind his cabin door, Eric shucked his clothing and stepped into the cleaner. The sonics shook the dried sweat off his skin, but did nothing to shake the apprehension inside him.
War. Eric’s heart thudded. Over the Skymen. Has it reached the First City? Who’s backing Narroways?
I don’t care, Eric reminded himself fiercely. I DON’T CARE.
Clean, but not relaxed, he pulled on his spare tunic and trousers and sat in front of the cabin’s auxiliary comm terminal. He switched the input setting from keyboard to audio. The screen lit up to show a blank, grey background.
“Ready for input,” said a neuter voice from the speaker.
Eric licked his lips. This was going to be a risk. So far, there hadn’t been any sign of Vitae pursuit, but that didn’t mean they weren’t looking for him. Any transmission was a chance to be spotted and tracked. But running blind, as he was now, was even more dangerous than running scared.
“Wanderer,” he said in the language of the Realm. “This is Teacher Hand. Tell Dorias I need him.”
He settled back to wait. May 16 was light-years away, and getting farther by the second. Eric folded his arms and drummed his fingers against his forearm, trying not to think too much. Dorias had tried to get a warning to him. That meant he knew at least something about what was going on. Anything was better than operating in total ignorance.
At long last, the terminal let out a single, low chime. “Connection made.”
Eric pulled himself up straight. “Dorias?”
The blank screen did not shift, but the terminal’s voice deepened into an approximation of a male baritone. “Eric! What took you so long? Are you on your way here?”
“Dorias, wait a minute, will you?” said Eric. “I’m not on my own and the Vitae have all gone insane. I only got part of your message on Haron Station. What’s going on?”
There was a long stretch of silence. “Eric, where are you?”
“On the U-Kenai."said Eric with more than a touch of exasperation. “In flight.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” said Dorias seriously. “What contact have you had with the Vitae?”
“They tried to incarcerate me.” Memory added heat to his tone.
“Do they still have the woman?”
Eric stared at the terminal for a moment without answering. “How did you know about her?”
Dorias sighed. “It’s a very long story, Eric. I need to know, do they still have her?”
“No,” said Eric. “She’s with me.”
“Good,” said Dorias in the same serious tone. “We need you both here. She was being taken to May 16 when the Vitae waylaid the ship.”
“She was what!” exclaimed Eric. “Are Unifiers in the Realm!”
“Yes, Eric, listen…”
“There’s a war going on in the Realm!” shouted Eric. “It’s being encouraged by a group of Skymen…”
“Eric…”
“And you’re saying it’s your employers!”
“And I’m trying to stop it, Eric!”
Eric closed his mouth and clenched his fists. He was shaking.
Dorias took advantage of his silence. “The Rhudolant Vitae have been scouting out the Realm of the Nameless Powers for years now. We couldn’t find out why. So the Unifiers sent a team in to try to get the natives, the People, to agree to join the Human Family before the Vitae could get their hands on them. But there’re complications…”
“What kind of complications?” Eric demanded.
“Madame Chairman asked for volunteers to be brought to May 16. The Vitae hijacked the ship and took the cargo…and we don’t know why.”
“Dorias,” said Eric in a low, level voice, “don’t play games with me…”
“Eric, listen to me. You’re being invited to come here, of your own free will,” said Dorias. “The Unifiers want to hire you and offer sanctuary to the woman…”
“Stone in the Wall dena Aria Born of the Black Wall.”
“Eric, if the Vitae want the Realm, your best bet for keeping it from them is to ally with the Unifiers, and don’t try to tell me you don’t care,” he added. “We both know you’ve never stopped caring, Teacher Hand.”
Eric said nothing.
“I’m asking you to trust me, Eric,” said Dorias. “Like I’ve trusted you.”
After a long moment, Eric said, “All right, I’m on my way. I’ll be there in about thirty hours.”
“Thank you,” said Dorias, and Eric broke the connection.
“I trust you, Dorias,” said Eric to the blank screen and the universe at large. “But how can I trust those fanatics you’ve allied yourself with? They want her as badly as the Vitae did, and I’m not going to let any of you have her or me until I know what you want us for.”
Eric leaned back in the chair and stared at the deck between his bare feet. With startling clarity, he saw two bodies there, faces contorted with the shock and pain that had killed them. Seven years separated action from memory, but his mind still held every detail.
He’d scrambled onto his knees with his heart pounding and his ears ringing, barely able to understand the voice whispering an unbeliever’s prayer to the gods.
He’d helped Yul Gan Perivar hide the bodies while Dorias ransacked the ship’s electronic memory for anything useful they could carry with them. Three of them had run away in the U-Kenai, which was just a shuttle belonging to the bigger ship whose owners had taken him from the Realm and died when they tried to keep him for their own.
That was their mistake. The laws of the Nameless Powers couldn’t keep me enslaved. What made them think a pair of human beings could. He tried to feel some measure of pride, or at least satisfaction at that, but all he felt was tired.
Eric shook himself and switched the terminal back to keyboard input and then into intercom mode. He typed a series of new directions to Cam and then opened up an outside channel to a world called Kethran.
Perivar would be willing to help keep Aria out of the hands of the Vitae. If not out of friendship, then because Eric could do him too much damage if he wanted to.
One of these days, there’ll be somebod
y around who helps because they want to. Not because I owe them, or they owe me. One of these days.
Until then, there was nothing to do but wait, and hope he was faster than even the Vitae could be.
Eric watched the spare cabin’s door open. As she stood in the threshold, Aria’s expression went from petrified fear, to unparalleled relief, to absolute embarrassment as she saw that the view wall was turned off, and that he was waiting for her.
She did figure out how to open the door last night. Garismit’s Eyes! Just as well for the Nobles that all the Notouch aren’t her grade of brainless! We’d all be dead in a week!
We? Eric winced inwardly. Them. They. I left that behind. Years and light-years behind.
In whose dreams was that, Teacher Hand? Not yours.
When he’d finally fallen asleep last night he had dreamed about the Walls. Broken Canyon, where the Nameless Powers had argued over the name for “stone.” Tiered Side, where the Servant Garismit kept watch for the Aunorante Sangh. Red Stone, where the first battle between the Nameless Powers and the Aunorante Sangh took place. Old places, holy places, and he still knew the litany and the celebration that went with each.
Just as he knew the laws for the Royal, the Noble, the Bondless, the Bonded, and the Notouch.
Eric shoved the thoughts well into the back of his mind so he could concentrate on the particular Notouch in front of him. She’d also, obviously, found some of his spare clothes. The azure pullover shirt made her a short dress and a pair of his black socks made thin leggings.
Who’d’ve thought a Notouch would have such fine legs?
Stop it, Eric.
She still wore her own belt and headcloth. The stones were now hanging from her belt in an emerald-colored pouch made of a sash he’d gotten for some forgotten formal occasion.
Eric beckoned out of the doorway. “I wasn’t sure you’d make it out. Good sign. I will be able to do something with you after all.”
“Oh?” Amusement glittered behind her eyes as she collected her nerve and wits. “You have something in mind then?”
“Yes, I do.” He pushed the plate full of ration squares across the table to her. “Here, breakfast.” He slid over a cup full of steaming liquid that approximated the brew they called tea in the Realm.
She sat down. “So Cam doesn’t get to eat?” she asked as she picked up a ration square. “This is two meals we’ve had without hun.”
Eric found himself strangling on another laugh. “You don’t let an idea go, do you? All right. Just remember, you asked.” He turned toward the airlock corridor. “Cam! Come here!”
Her eyes tracked around to the open threshold. With a smooth, mechanical pace, Cam walked in. It might have been a moving statue of peach-colored clay dressed in saffron overalls. At least that was what Eric had thought the first time he’d seen one.
Aria jerked backward as far as the chair would let her. Eric turned his face away and fought the urge to smile.
Getting her angry at me won’t accomplish anything.
“That is a human-copy. It’s another Skyman machine. It flies the ship at my orders and answers to ‘Cam.’”
“Ah.” She did not relax any.
Eric shook his head. “Return to the bridge, Cam.”
As soon as Cam was out of sight, Aria settled herself back into a normal sitting position and reclaimed her breakfast, which had dropped to the floor.
“I’ve been talking to a friend of mine.” Eric eyed her for a moment. She absorbed the statement calmly. All right. “He thinks he might be able to find a place for you.”
“What kind of place?” She took a long swig of tea.
“Does it matter?”
“Not really. I just like to know what I’m getting into, when I can.” She stuffed the last of the square into her mouth and licked her fingers. Eric tried not to watch. Notouch table manners were apparently no better than their hygiene.
Stop that too, Eric. She wasn’t brought up to know better. It was amazing how quickly the old arrogance came back. For ten years he’d been a servant of one kind or another, and it still came back.
“I’d tell you if I could, but I’ve got no idea what will happen. Perivar, my friend, was one of the Skymen who took me over the World’s Wall. He was also my first friend once I got out here. On top of that, he owes me for a few years of silence. He’ll find some place to put you. It may not be pleasant, but it won’t be life-threatening either.”
“Did you tell him I’m Notouch?” Aria held up her scarred hand and wiggled her fingers.
Eric shook his head. “Not a soul out here would know a Noble from a Notouch, let alone care. You are beyond the laws of the Nameless Powers.”
She nodded, looking down into her tea. Her eyes narrowed a moment at whatever she saw in there before she drank the last of it down.
“There’re a few things we have to take care of first,” Eric went on.
She eyed him in silence.
“First, you must understand you can never mention where you came from.”
She set the cup down. “Why?”
Eric searched for the words to build an explanation. “Some of the Skymen, in their arrogance, or kindness, I have never really figured out which, have decided there are some worlds, or people, that cannot handle meeting them and their ways without falling apart. So they pass laws that label such places forbidden. No trade, no speech, no exchange of any kind.”
Aria snorted. “I’m a Notouch from a Notouch world then. I wish the King in Narroways could know!”
“Yes.” Eric snorted. “I’ve met King Sun. He deserves to know that one.”
Aria shook her head. “Sun after the Storm doesn’t hold the rule anymore. His granddaughter, Silver on the Clouds, became King, two, no, three years ago.” In the language of the Realm, there was only one word for the ruler of a city whether male or female. If a person could hold the throne of one of the twenty-nine city-states, they were called King. “It was during the siege,” Aria added.
The mention of the war dropped into Eric’s mind like a stone. He swallowed and picked up the broken thread of his thoughts. “Not all the Skymen think the same thing about…Notouch worlds. Some of them raid those places on a regular basis for talent or knowledge. There’s one group, the Alliance for Reunification, that try to bring isolated worlds into what they call ‘the Human Family.’ But"—he leaned forward—"what is important to you and me is that there are Skymen who consider being taken from a Notouch world a crime and any people from such a world that they catch"—he caught her gaze and held it—"are sent back.”
“I am not ready to go back yet,” said Aria flatly.
Eric hung his head. “Aria, try to understand. You are over the World’s Wall now, and you may never get back.”
Emotions flickered across her face too fast for Eric to identify. “I got over. I’ll get back when I’m ready.” She gathered herself together and managed a fairly casual shrug. “Until then, I’ll say nothing about my birthplace.”
Eric rubbed his palms together. Leave it. Let her believe whatever’ll give her comfort. She’ll learn otherwise soon enough. “All right. Now, there’s only one thing left to do.”
“What?”
“Teach you how to look at someplace without walls without having fits.”
Very slowly, her hands knotted into fists. “I see.”
“The Realm of the Nameless Powers is the only place I’ve ever seen with a World’s Wall,” he told her. “All the others are open. Wide-open. I can’t take you to Perivar if you can’t walk outside.”
She hesitated, staring down at the backs of her fists.
“What do I have to do?”
She’s got all the nerve the Nameless had to hand out, Eric thought as he stood up. I’ll give her that for free.
“Let me tie you up again.”
“Why?” Her voice stayed calm.
“So you don’t hurt me, or yourself when I turn on,” he stopped and retranslated the term, “open up t
he window-wall again.”
“All right,” she croaked.
“We’ll start now.” Action, any action, was better than giving himself time to think about what might or might not be happening in the Realm.
He brought out the repair tape again and, as deftly as possible, tied her legs together and strapped her arms to her sides. Then, he trussed her tightly against the chair. He rummaged through the medical drawer and found a dry cloth. He held it in front of her mouth. “So you won’t bite through your tongue.”
Her teeth clamped together around the cloth and her eyes followed him as he crossed the room. He held his hand over the reader and braced himself.
The view wall switched on. Infinity peeked in at them and Aria went into spasms. Arms and legs tried to flail out. Teeth ground against the cloth and throat screamed. Her eyes clenched themselves shut. Her head thudded against the sofa back. Eric winced and turned his face away. At the same time, he was glad he hadn’t had the nerve to try to hold her himself. She would have gotten away, but not before they both had broken bones.
Eventually, she slumped against the back of the chair, breathing heavily.
“Aria Born of the Black Wall, look up.”
She was too worn out not to do as he said. Her eyes drank in the scene on the view wall and the whole thing started again.
It was a long, miserable circuit. She’d scream herself out, then get another look at the vacuum and start again. A couple of times she actually passed out and he had to get stimulants from the medical kit to shock her awake so she could start screaming and struggling again.
She’s not going to make it. He leaned against the wall. She may be the most incredible excuse for a Notouch in the Realm of the Nameless, but she doesn’t have the strength to get through this. She’s going to go crazy, and then I’m going to have to…to…He couldn’t make himself finish the thought.
Somehow, though, by force of nerves or desperation, Eric didn’t know, she held on to her sanity. She lifted her head from the lopsided angle where it had fallen and opened wide eyes that matched the blackness of the void. She looked out at the emptiness. She did not scream. Her hands twitched but she stilled them. Her eyes stayed open.